Tijdens een interview over de DVD-release van Tristan & Isolde, een film die hij mede-produceerde, liet regisseur Ridley Scott (Blade Runner, Hannibal) iets los over een vervolg op zijn Gladiator uit 2000. Over een eventuele Gladiator 2 gaan al jaren geruchten, en hoofdrolspeler Russell Crowe blijkt de Ausrtalische muzikant Nick Cave te hebben benaderd voor het schrijven van het script.
I've heard that you and Russell Crowe approached Nick Cave about writing a Gladiator sequel?
You said that you loved the ending. What was it about that draft that you couldn't get it off the ground?
We were all having a go. DreamWorks was having a go, so we were having a go. DreamWorks was addressing Rome without Maximus, because clearly he's gone, and he's dead. Therefore, it would be to the son that Maximus had probably left behind with his affair with Lucilla. You're then basing a film on a different kind of premise. Again, you're basing it on a corrupt Rome, the Rome that would be heading to its own demise. It was far more rambling and complex. Often great plays are very simple, and I think that the mechanics of the Gladiator story were really very satisfactory and worked very well."